Final Call on Chintpurni Medical College in two weeks : Govt informs High court

Chandigarh: The Punjab Government informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday, that it will take the final call on the fate of Chintpurni Medical College within 2 weeks from Friday. The government has already started the process of revoking the 'no objection certificate' for shortage of faculty and inadequate infrastructure. Chintpurni medical college has already been barred from taking in student admissions for the next two years, making it a prominent closure case in the last two months.

The single bench of Justice Fateh Deep Singh has been informed by the Assistant Advocate General of Punjab that a final decision on the college and its students will be taken within two weeks Friday onwards.

The Department of Medical Education and Research last month had questioned the college on why its Essentiality certificate should not be withdrawn after having found glaring deficiencies in the college. The department on May 31 had notified the college about a personal hearing with the health secretary on June 7 before finally withdrawing the essentiality certificate.

However, officials still do not want to strike a nail in the Chintpurni coffin saying it was still premature that Chintpurni would go the Gian Sagar Medical College way. "The case has not been finalized yet," said a senior health department official.

The May 31 admission bar placed by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on 32 private Medical colleges including Chintpurni Medical College has made it near impossible for Chintpurni to revive itself. The college had been allotted 150 seats along with a 300 bed hospital. Howeve.r the supreme Court has been moved by this Pathankot based college against the order issued by the centre.

MCI's repeated efforts to revive the college by carrying out repeated compliance inspections failed to revive the college which could not meet up to the Council norms due to wrong patient records and shortage of faculty.

Medical Council of India, through repeated inspections, has reported that the college has failed to maintain standards. An inspection by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences last year had also found that adequate faculty was not available at the college and the record of patients at the hospital was also wrong.

Health Minister Brahm Mohindra said, despite the MCI taking action against the college for infrastructural and faculty deficiencies, " the government will take all possible steps to protect the career of students who have been affected by the developments," reports Indian Express.